CALENDAR

STATS

TOURNEY BRACKETS

With their best attackman, BJ Prager, going down yesterday with a torn ACL it would be expected that the Tiger offense would look a little out of sync today, but the story of the day was really the two team's defenses. The well coached, usually stellar Princeton defense was unable to keep a lid on the Orangemen offense, but on the other side of the ball, the Syracuse defense played out of their heads and held the Tigers to only four goals the entire day (with one of those coming in the last five minutes of the game).

The Syracuse offense started early and struck often. #21-Tim Byrnes(3g-0a) finished a lefty bounce shot from up top, putting it over Tierney's shoulder into the upper right off of a skip pass from #22-Ryan Powell(1g-6a). #32-Josh Coffman(1g-2a) scored the second Syracuse goal off another feed from Powell, followed up by Powell's lone goal of the day, which was assisted by #3-Liam Banks(2g-2a). The first three consecutive goals of the game by Syracuse lead to a Tiger timeout by Coach Tierney. This timeout looked to have settled Princeton down, as they were able to convert a man-up play on which they shifted from a 1-3-2 set to a 1-4-1, which lead to a #3-Owen Daly(1g-0a) goal from #42-Chris Harrington(0g-1a). This put the game at 3-1 in favor of Syracuse and ended the 3 goal run, but 'Cuse started up another scoring drive immediately with a #31-Devin Darcangelo(2g-2a) score from a Coffman feed, and another Tim Byrnes goal. On the last possession of the opening quarter, Powell drove from behind and hit Springer, who was hanging out up top. Springer fired the ball, which Tierney was able to get a piece of but couldn't control, Banks picked up the loose rebound on the crease and threw in a garbage goal with 2 seconds left. Syracuse came out ready to play and Princeton looked more than shakey in the first, as the quarter ended at 6-1.

The second quarter scoring opened with Springer(about two yards inside the box) firing a feed from Coffman into the upper left corner right past Tierney, 7-1. Princeton's second goal of the day, to end the 4 goal Syracuse run, came off a #3-Matt Striebel(0g-2a) backdoor feed to #2-Brendan Tierney chilling on the backside, who quicksticked it by a diving Mulligan. The Tierney goal brought the game score to 7-2 and set up the Plays of the Day.

Notice this is not just a Play of the Day, but the Plays of th Day, and probably the most exciting sequence of plays seen so far this year. Syracuse came flying down the field and ran a classic 3 pass 4-3 break, with Springer getting the ball on the left side and his stick in his left hand. As Springer goes to finish this beautifully executed 4-3, Trevor Tierney dives across the crease and makes an incredible save against Springer. This classic break followed by the highlight diving save by Tierney was plenty, but it is Easter and we got a little more. Tierney gets the ball, and himself, up off the turf to clear the ball. Springer(who just got stuffed) gets a piece of Tierney's pass, sending the ball up in the air barely out of the restraining box. Powell gets his hands on the stray clear and whips an around-the-back pass to a slashing Springer, who catches and finishes with a backhanded goal past Tierney. Great fast break, great diving save, great around-the-back Powell feed, and a great Springer backhanded goal. Happy Easter. Two more Syracuse goals put the score at 10-2 going into halftime.

As the two teams warmed-up for the second half, it was tough to tell whether this was a #2 vs #4 matchup. Was Princeton going to be able to come out all fired up and make a game of it, or was 'Cuse going to be able to continue to play solid defense and create multiple scoring opportunities?
Well, Princeton came out and scored the first goal of the second half as Striebel found an open Sims in the middle, who then pinged the lower right corner to cut the lead to 10-3. That would actually be it for Princeton's scoring on the day, except for one more goal late in the fourth quarter after the game had been decided. Powell and Co. reeled off 3 more in the 3rd quarter. Byrnes finished yet another feed from Powell, as Tierney barely reacted on the high shot until it was in the back of the net. Powell once again dishes the ball from behind to an anxious Springer who... you guessed it, fired one high upper right past Tierney. The Powell to Springer routine was almost getting boring by now, but it hit again, as Powell received a bounce pass after getting open on a backdoor cut, then passing it to Springer, who one-times it in. The 3rd ended with Syracuse up 13-3 and with more than a strong grip on the game.

The fourth quarter started off with a Darcangelo goal for Syracuse and then the two teams went back and forth as the game's clock continued to tick down towards zero. One Princeton and two Syracuse goals were scored late in the fourth with little significance on the outcome of the game. Syracuse wins this Easter Sunday classic 16-4, and shows why they are one of if not the best team in the nation. Syracuse teams have always been competitive and exciting to watch because of their offensive abilities, but this year they have a little kicker. This year the Orangemen have got something brewing upstate with goalie Rob Mulligan and his defensive core of Abrams, Glatzel, St. George, and Ceglia making up an extremely stingy defensive unit that can flat out shut teams down. While Princeton's offense is now missing their top gun with Prager gone for the season, and with their defense unable to keep the Syracuse offense in check today, don't count them out. Give Coach Tierney and his staff some time and few practices in order to start compensating for the loss of Prager, and team loss to Syracuse, and they will be clicking in time for the playoffs.

while loss of bj and brian most cetainly hurts the tigers at this stage of the season, neither fo them could have changed the 19-5 fo advantage and an equally dominant gb advantage. to me, the entire pu squad looked a step or two slower than the orange. tigers can't use back to back as an excuse because syracuse also played and they are on the road since friday. pu is not as bad as the score indicates, but they were today. syracuse? they can't be as good as they played today... if they are, give them the trophy now... i suspect they had their harmonic convergence today... everyone played super. the question is can they maintain this level. richard c.

How can Princeton hope to compete with big losses to Virginia and Syracuse? On top of that, they lost BJ Prager, the real finisher for the tigers. Overall, I think that this is the turning point of the Tiger season: toward a flop in the tourney.

Princeton has had a rough few games. I think if they can rebound from this last game, they could have a chance to go into the tourney and win. They are beating the other Ivy League Teams. So, if they can beat the other top 3 teams, they will be in pretty good shape.

I must agree to G. lax other than these two top rank in the nation there is no question that Tigers can hold the self in the tourney. yes I agree that Tigers lost "one" of their offensive structure that could have change aloton the out come of yesterday, But that will not be the turning point of PU lacrosse because this 39 consecutive Ivy league win team is not a one man team.There will need to be changes to the team but the Tigers will not go down as every one expected.

I must agree to G. lax other than these two top rank in the nation there is no question that Tigers can hold the self in the tourney. yes I agree that Tigers lost "one" of their offensive structure that could have change aloton the out come of yesterday, But that will not be the turning point of PU lacrosse because this 39 consecutive Ivy league win team is not a one man team.There will need to be changes to the team but the Tigers will not go down as every one expected.

hey i heard that the d1 champs are gonna play the winner of the d3 championship game, which will undoubtedly be between widener and new england college.
personally i think both widener and nec are stellar, and have shot to contend against even the #1 school in d1.

Why do you even think Widener has a chance against NEC? Widener only has 2 guys who can pass lefty, but NEC has a full 5 guys who can! Plus, I know for a fact NEC has some sick defenseman who's been rumored to bench over 200 lbs. They also have a really great coach, with a host of unstoppable plays like "the wheel", "the iso", and "the outside shot".

I think that NEC has a good chance through all of the tourney.Nobody was bad mouthing them and I don't know if NEC could handle D1 teams. I've gone to their games, and they play well, so we'll just have to see what happens

Hey JHUlax4 next time you might want to proof read before you post something, retard. As for Salisbury I don't know about the talent on their roster, but they definitely have enough white trash on their roster. Graduating from SSU is the easier than passing the GED.